Barbara Keidel

The cautious colour palettes of Barbara Keidel underline an equality in her flat painting, within which an association of deep dimensions is rarely allowed. Brush, grid, surfaces, broad lines, which are sometimes engulfed and transform in one ornament and find themselves in apparent, harmonic affinity, possess an equalized flatness. Barbara Keidel plays with the association capability of the beholder, who occasionally perceives everyday objects, which are not at all included in the image, but invites for a longer contemplation, shimmering between abstract forms and substantial fragments – the artist does not concern herself with exact, realistic representations. Keidel finds the meaning of the paintings through an unemotional perception of her immediate surroundings. When traveling, she draws the small format “Dintorni” with a delicate aqua colour notate of the surrounding. She makes those things visible that are important only to her, that interest her and which she herself deals with. In the series “winter quarters” these are the patio plants wrapped in potato sacks, in ”Still Life” these are handicraft items, an assortment of objects that happened to be on the studio shelf. Not all of this is taken into the picture, but it is the basis for painting, fundamental to the image without being the content. The paintings are removed from reality – the formats are the logical extension during production of the body of work, oval, round, rectangular image formats, major and minor image carriers. Not necessarily always on canvas, ironing linen, chipboard, and hives are other conduit. There are multi-part paintings, two-pieced, framed, unframed, canvas is applied on canvas. The handling of the instruments is pleasantly undogmatic and never random. The order of the painting, which is revealed in slow steps, always arises newly when the elements come together in harmony. One has to get involved with the non-locatable, which gets more and more difficult, because we eagerly and immediately seek the help of the numerous digital assistants, in order to avoid this state.